pick#InternationalBooker2024 Book 3
This is a weird story that in certain ways reminds me of Samanta Schweblin‘s writing.
There is little punctuation and past and present are seamlessly blurred so the reader is often left confused by the chronology of events.
The writing meanders and flows like a river but there is always an undercurrent of danger present, keeping the reader off balance.
Who knew fishing could be so dangerous?
pickAfter an auto mechanic shop opens in the main character's backyard, he embarks on an increasingly desperate series of attempts to get some peace from many varieties of noise in modernizing 1950s South American society. It's not as slapstick as it sounds - more like a very long short story with weird character quirks. You feel bad for the guy, but he also reveals himself to be a bit of an oddball, so that adds another dimension to the mix.
pickA novel based on real events, written in a non-fictional manner. It begins as a journalist‘s research notes from a visit to a newly surfaced archive of secret police records. But as the narrator digs deeper into the files, his access is denied and it becomes a journal of his continued investigations, leading to the discovery related to a traumatic event suffered by his mother. I didn‘t get the revelation, because I didn‘t pay attention the names.
Crime and disappearances in #Guatemala, a country where corruption is rife and income disparities are breathtaking. I have read the first 2/3 of this novel by one of the best-known contemporary Guatemalan authors, and am loving it so far.
Photo of lake Atitlán (which features in the story) by FerociousFlaherty via wikimedia
At the start, I was rather unconvinced by this novella, but the more I read the more engaged I was. I'll have to google all the Chilean writers mentioned because apart from Neruda, I couldn't place them.
The picture of Santiago de Chile in winter with the Andes in the background I found on Wikipedia felt fitting...
#FoodandLit #Chile
@Catsandbooks @Texreader
pick"Still, giving up writing and reading, abandoning my work and my books, would leave me without any consolation. It would be like giving up life itself." p.17
#deweysreadathon
"Readers seek out fellow readers as much as they seek out books, though fellow readers are, alas, more difficult to find. So we hold onto them for life."
(Almost) Weekly Report
I've finally finished The Rainbow! Very dense writing. I've also read A World of Love and The Silentiary.
And because I'm me I have immediately started another big, difficult book. Also, always, trying to keep up with Clarissa.
It finally feels like spring - a day with beautiful sunshine and warm temperatures!
